POSTED BY: The United greek committee (UGC)
The United Greek Committee is speaking out about a product that has been created by a Senior Design Team that promotes destructive behavior and presents Greek Life in a negative light. The HangoverLyte Senior Design team, along with the Stevens School of Business, is featuring a project that promotes itself as a “hangover cure.” An article was released on Friday April 15, 2016, the day before Accepted Students Weekend, on the Stevens website, Facebook, and Twitter accounts entitled “Stevens Team Puts a Hangover Cure on Tap.” The article paints a negative picture of Stevens students. Specifically, the article targets the Greeks, appealing to them as a target audience to use and promote their product without consulting the members of the community. Had they asked the leaders of the community what we thought, we would have clearly stated our concerns with their intentions. We do not wish to be equated with such blatant attempts to perpetuate stereotypes.
This article was inappropriate and does not accurately portray the Stevens Greek community. We are insulted by the suggestion that fraternities and sororities would be “great ambassadors” for a hangover beverage. Publicizing this article has undone so much of the hard work that the Stevens Greeks have done in recent history to improve the perception of Greeks in this country and at this school.
Fraternities and sororities at Stevens are continuously working for the betterment of society by raising money for charity, volunteering, and dedicating their lives to improving the lives of others. Recently on Tuesday April 19, 2016 approximately 150 Stevens Greeks came out for Hoboken Take Back the Night, to raise awareness to end Sexual Violence. In last year alone, the Stevens Greek Community raised over $41,000 for charity and did over 22,000 hours of community service. Stevens Greeks represent one third of our student community, as well as a large percentage of student leaders and faculty members at Stevens. One third of Greek-affiliated students are recognized as part of the top 10% of their chapters nationwide for their organizations.
The UGC reached out to the design team on April 18, 2016 requesting that they please remove any references to Greek Life from their publicity and to please readjust their target market and phrasing to avoid perpetuating negative stereotypes about the Stevens Greek community. The response we got from one of the team members, James Shannon, on April 19, 2016 was “lol, yeah ok”. We find this type of response disappointing, and frankly a bit rude and dismissive.
For Stevens to choose to market a product like this is simply disappointing to us as Greeks and as Stevens students. On March 3, 2016 the team posted a status of attending a funeral with the verbiage “Ready to spank your hangover. RIP to the competition” on their Facebook page. Is this really what Stevens and wants to promote, and what this group of students wants to show as a culminating project of the hard work and dedication they have shown throughout the years? This project reflects poorly not only on the Stevens Greeks, but on Stevens community as a whole. If you are stopping by the Innovation Expo next on Wednesday April 27, 2016, we encourage you to stop by their booth and share this message.
